Firefly: Fry Cook Opportunity
by Gamera Obscura
Summary: Mal shows his appreciation for Wash's hand in freeing him from Niska, and takes him on an errand on Persephone to reward him. He also gives him a gift: his own gun. (Takes place between episode 10, "War Stories" and episode 11, "Trash).


**Firefly: Fry Cook Opportunity  
By Gamera Obscura**

" **Hey, I've been in a firefight before! Well, I was in a fire. Actually, I was fired. From a… fry cook opportunity. I can handle myself."**

 **-Wash, Firefly Episode 10: "War Stories"**

The Firefly-class transport _Serenity_ glided to a stop in its assigned berth in the Eavesdown Docks on Persephone, its landing struts settling it gently onto the boxy protrusion on the bottom of the craft that included the cargo bay, infirmary, common area, and passenger dorms. _Serenity's_ pilot, Hoban Washburne, shut down the engines, leaving the secondary life support system active, and unbelted himself from the pilot's chair.

He bounded his way out of the bridge; with the grav thrust off, Persephone's gravity was at a light .7 of Earth-That-Was, and it always put a spring in his step. Before long, he was in the compartment of the ship that doubled as a kitchen and dining room, where the Captain, his wife Zoe, and Jayne, were all sitting.

"Planetfall, Captain," Wash said simply, and was surprised when Mal stood and started to approach him. In the time it took to find another buyer for the last of their medicines, stolen from a hospital in Ariel, and make their way back to Persphone, Mal's severed ear had healed completely.

"Jingsai!" Mal exclaimed, and placed his hands around Wash's waist.

Wash was confused. "What are you…" he began, but Mal placed a finger over his lips.

"Zoe," Mal said, "your husband and I have decided that he and I have to get it on, to get all this sexual tension out of the way, and make a fair fight for his manly affections."

Zoe laughed at Wash's predicament, "I knew all that time sleeping alone would turn you sly, sir. My man is a big boy, and if that's what he wants, who am I to stand in his way?" She then went back to cleaning her "Mare's Leg" as though she couldn't be less interested in the proceedings.

Jayne chuckled. "There's somethin' familiar about this… And even more unsettlin'. I can imagine who gets to be the woman in this situation."

Wash decided to just go with it, for the sake of humor, and his reputation aboard the ship as "the funny one". "We'll be in the Captain's bunk," he said, as Mal led him out of the room, and to the weapons locker, which he unlocked, opened, and pulled out a large, brushed steel revolver with a long barrel. Then he took Wash downstairs to the cargo bay after tucking the weapon into his long, brown coat, a nod to his turn in the Unification War.

As the Captain lowered the ramp and led Wash into the docks in the late afternoon sun, Wash asked, "What is this all about, anyway, Captain?"

Mal didn't look at Wash as the pair walked side-by-side towards the city proper. "I reckon I ain't never got the chance to thank you for taking up arms and saving my life from Niska and his men," he said.

Wash smiled. "And I never got the opportunity to thank you for keeping me from breaking under torture," Wash countered.

"How many did you kill in that tussle, anyway?" Mal walked with purpose, seeming to be on his way to a specific destination.

Wash grimaced, remembering the experience vividly. "Three, with a shotgun. Four, if you count Niska's torturer," he said.

"Well, it ain't no thing to kill someone to a scatter rifle, as long as you're up close, or to kill a man with a handgun from five feet away, but you've been blooded, that's for sure. That makes you our honorary fourth fighter, and it's time for you to be trained as one," Mal said, coming to a stop before a storefront.

"I still owe you for keeping me from breaking," Wash said.

"No, no," Mal said. "You helped get me out of that place. I reckon that makes us square. If anything, I still owe you, and that's what this day is all about." He gestured to the store before them.

The shop was Xin'hua's Shooting Range and Weapons Emporium, and Mal held the door open for Wash, who stepped inside.

The interior of the shop was cluttered with handguns, rifles, shotguns, swords, and knives of all sorts, in addition to accessories and even incense. Mal began picking his way through the aisles with a basket in hand, pulling out a leather quick-draw holster, a gun kit with two cans of gun oil, and four revolver speed-loaders.

"As our fourth fighter, this weapon," he said, pulling out the silver pistol from his pocket, "is yours. It's a Norinco .357 Long. Incidentally, this is the same pistol you used to kill Niska's torturer along with Jayne and Zoe."

Wash wanted to smile, but the moment was very serious between them. "Is that Long as in the Chinese word for 'dragon', or Long as in 'the barrel is long'?"

"Dragon," said Mal, as he paid the clerk for his items and bought two 50-round boxes of ammunition for the revolver. "I figure that a wheel-gun will be more suited to you. It's easier to maintain and use, and less can go wrong with it. It may have fewer rounds before you have to reload, but if you learn where to put your shots, and make them count, that don't matter so much."

Fifteen minutes later, Wash and Mal were standing alone in the gun range section in the back of the shop. "Zhen tama yaoming. Zhuyi," said Mal as he loaded the weapon with cartridges and slipped it into the quick-draw holster on Wash's hip.

"Don't draw it unless you intend to fire. And don't put your finger onto the trigger until you're ready to shoot her." He pulled out his own pistol, showing Wash the trigger guard. "Place your finger here until you're ready."

Mal twisted a knob at the side of the booth, setting the holographic target for twenty feet. "Now, in one fluid motion, pull out the wheel-gun, point it at the target, then squeeze the trigger."

Wash did as he was told, but nothing happened. The gun did not shoot. With a chuckle, Mal showed him the safety catch on the left side of the weapon, and instructed Wash to try again, but to turn the safety off as he drew the weapon. Wash placed the revolver back into his holster, then drew it again, flipping the safety and firing at the target.

A sign above the target read "MISS", and an alarm buzzed for a second.

"Putan!" exclaimed Wash.

"Not so easy as it looks, is it?" Mal asked. "It's possible for an untrained attacker to empty an entire clip or a whole wheel at a target even a dozen feet away and miss every time. Now aim carefully, with your eyes on the front sight, and the front sight between the gap in the back, hold your breath, and fire again. And squeeze the trigger, don't pull it."

Wash aimed carefully, held his breath, and squeezed the trigger. An indicator flashed to the bottom right of the target, signaling a miss, but at least he was close enough for the shot to register.

"Ni tama de tianxia suoyou de ren dou gaisi!" exclaimed Wash again.

"Now, now," Mal said, soothingly. "You'll get it. You're tensing up because you're anticipating the kick the gun gives when you shoot. Loosen up when you squeeze the trigger. Also, you always gotta be mindful of what's behind your target. If you're trying to kill some gorram hundan, and there's a friendly fella behind him, you run the risk of hitting the friendly if you shoot, so watch the angle. You never know when your bullet is gonna hit a bone and stop, or drill straight through and hit someone else on the other side. Oh," he turned around at this, pointing at the base of his skull, dead center, "you shoot a man right here in the brain stem, no matter what he's doing, he'll go down without moving, so even if he's holding someone hostage, a shot right here will kill him so he doesn't twitch a muscle and fire."

Mal turned back around. "Now, let's try again."

 **O-O-O**

Over the next two hours, under Mal's tutelage, Wash began to inch his shots closer and closer to the center of the target. Before long, he could even quick-draw his weapon and hit the target, not dead-center, mind, but close enough to definitely take down an enemy. Mal showed Wash how to load up his speed loaders, and how to use those to load his weapon in an emergency.

By the time they left the shop, it was dark out, and Wash was at least marginally proficient. Later, Mal promised, when they got back to the ship, he would show Wash how to clean and maintain his weapon, a weapon he was now to wear at all times.

Wash bounced ahead of his Captain, happy at the day's events, the things he had learned, and the fact that Mal trusted him to hold his own in a firefight. As he sped up and gained distance in front of Mal, he hoped that he'd never have reason to use it, but he would practice, become more proficient, and be ready, should the need ever arise.

At that moment, a man stepped from an alley in front of Mal, a pistol in his hand. "I'll take all your money, go-se."

Grimacing, Mal raised his hands instinctively in the air, then reached slowly for his pocket to draw out the wad of bills he was carrying. On Persephone, alleyway robbers had a tendency to kill people that weren't carrying enough to satisfy them, and Mal had barely brought enough with him to cover his purchases. His only hope was…

There was a crack, and the man slid dead to the ground. Wash stood behind him, his Long outstretched in both hands.

Mal smiled. "Looks like I owe you one, after all," he said with relief.

Mal and Wash fled the scene long before the Feds could arrive.

 **(Author's Note: I always wondered what happened between Episode 10 and Episode 13 that caused Wash to start carrying a revolver on him, which he used in "Heart of Gold" to defend himself and Kaylee from a trio of gunmen that had invaded the ship. This is my vision of what happened, the initiation of Wash as the "Fourth Fighter" on the crew. I hope you enjoyed it. -Gamera Obscura)**


End file.
